Late at night and even Kryptonians need to study for their tests. There are no emergencies. No crisis beckons. For once, Karen Starr can be a normal college student getting ready for finals.

Or so one may think.

She steps out of the wall, not so much phasing through it as emerging from it. A blue woman with pink hair, petite. Completely unknown and yet, the feeling will be there. That she is known. That she is loved.

"KarenStarrKaraZor-LPowerWoman."

Karen Starr is seated at her desk, with plenty of light in the room. She is flipping through diagrams and 'flash card' images on her StarkPad, testing her recall. Of course, with her abilities her recall is fantastic. But every student should study for finals, and this at least helps get her mind into the headspace of being Karen Starr instead of concentrating on battle scenarios and world politics and all of those things that dominate her headspace as Power Woman. It's a good thing.

And then some strange-looking girl comes out of the wall of her single dorm room, and basically outs her entire secret identity in one 'word'. Karen obviously, naturally, flips out. She kicks back her chair and lets it fall over as she lifts herself to her full virtually six-foot height, fists clenched at her sides. She notices the feeling that comes over her at the sight of the woman, but she brushes that aside, assuming the possibility that it may be some kind of undue mental influence or control. "Who are you? What are you doing in my room? And why are you calling me that?" She plays dumb, but not stupid. "My name is Karen Starr. It's on my driver's license, even though I never drive. It's on my student ID. And it's on the door to this room … which you did not knock on and wait to be admitted." Yep. She's a bit wound up. But she doesn't lead with a punch. Many would.

The blue skinned woman tilts her head and considers Karen Starr for a moment. "Processing. for. error." There's a brief moment when three dots glow on her forehead. Three dots set in a triangle pattern, pointing down. A familiar pattern…

"Error. Dismissed. You. are. KarenStarrKaraZor-LPowerWoman."

"I. am. Metropolis."

Karen steps forward in front of the woman, and glowers intently. "Stop. Calling. Me. That. Now." Her demeanor is … dangerous. The more this woman keeps saying that, the greater the chances someone could overhear. That it could be recorded. That any one of a million things could go wrong and threaten her secret identity, and with it the lives of her friends and family.

"You are … Metropolis?" Karen is more than a little flummoxed by that, which is not helped by the Brainiac symbol on her forehead. Crap. This is not good. "I'm giving you a chance to explain. One chance. But we start with one rule: You call me Karen Starr. Nothing else." It's a robot of some kind. X-Ray and microscopic sweeps prove that. So she makes it a rule for the programming to assimilate. Doesn't matter what other names she has. It is only to use the one she has authorized. "Now … who are you? What are you doing here? What do you want?"

"I. am. Metropolis. KarenStarr." The blue skinned woman has not moved. It might be a little eerie. There's no motion. No breathing. No blinking. As for the robotics, they make absolutely no sense. There's no sign of a central processing unit and there's pieces of a dozen different MetroTech devices built into her. At least one of them is a blender. "Once. I. was. only. Metropolis. Once. I. was. only. Brainiac-7. Now. I. am. both."

"Well then, you're not Metropolis anymore." Karen offers, as she eases up just a bit. For now, the new rules are holding. She'll have to ammend them at some point, but only once she better understands what the Hell is going on. "You've explained some of what you are. Now. Why are you here? What do you want with me?" Karen is trying not to flip out. It's not easy, but she's a hero. She can handle this. Hopefully.

"I'm not saying you are no longer made of Metropolis. Obviously, you are." Karen explains. "But calling you the city's name is no longer accurate. As you have said, you were just Metropolis. Then you were Brainiac-7. Now you are some kind of fusion of both of those things." Karen has no idea how that's possible, not really. Rather, she knows how the City has been merged with Brainiac tech. But she doesn't know how there was anything for that tech to merge to and create this woman. This avatar. "So, you'll need a new identifier that is neither of those two, since neither of those two can express both ideas at once." Logic will usually work with computers, so that's where she starts.

"So, you came to see me, because I inspire the citizens and help shape the future of Metropolis? Have you also gone to visit Lex Luthor? Are you visiting him right now?" That would be Karen's worst nightmare, as she's pretty sure someone like Lex could get this thing to fess up to anything and everything that it knows. Which now includes her secret identity. So she has to ask.

"I. have. not. visited. AlexanderLexLuthor. He. is. not. in. Metropolis. currently." The android says this with certainty. "I. am. still. Metropolis. I. am. also. this. body. It. is. different." The android touches the holographic interface on Karen's computer and begins working through footage until, there she is, in a video file on UTube entitled 'Indigo Lady at the Monarch's Ballpark'. She is seen walking around the center field.

"I get that you are still Metropolis. I don't understand what that means, yet. But that can wait. My point is, I'm not calling you by the City's name, because that's not all that you are. Calling you that is inaccurate. It ignores a very important part of who or what you are." Karen explains to the robotic avatar. She watches the other manipulate her computer, noting that she does that rather than fiddle with the StarkPad, which is a secured system. Makes sense, instinctively, that it would choose that. She's not entirely sure why, but she trusts her instincts. "What do you think of 'Indigo' then, for a name to represent this … avatar of yours? Unique from both other names. Representing this new you." So. Lex is out of town? Interesting.

Indigo processes the name. It takes less than a second but she rechecks and bounces the idea. So, she's absolutely still for three point two seconds. "Indigo. is. acceptable. This. avatar. will. be. called. Indigo." She removes her hand from the holographic interface and it returns to dormant mode. Notice that the computer is MetroTech, too. The StarkPad, while nice, is not. "You. inspire. Metropolis. You. are. featured. in. media. more. times. than. any. other. individual. Cities. evolve. around. focal. points. KarenStarr. AlexanderLexLuthor. Both. are. focal. points."

"OK. Agreed. Lex and I would certainly qualify as potential focal points. And I'm assuming you've run enough data modeling to narrow that down." Karen admits. This is still way weird. But … right now, she doesn't think this avatar is posing an active threat. Which doesn't mean it isn't dangerous. But it isn't /trying/ to be so right now. "But why are you here? Why come to see me? I'm already being that focal point. What are you trying to accomplish?"

Again, Indigo pauses. For a moment, one might wonder if she's abandoned the shell. She's quiet and unmoving for ten point three seconds. Then she speaks again. "I. was."

"curious."

OK. Not exactly what Karen expected, but she honestly wasn't quite sure /what/ to expect. "OK. You're curious. So, you have questions. Right?" Karen walks over to her desk chair, and sits down. And she motions Indigo towards the bed. Whether or not the robot takes a seat, she offered, at least. "Why don't you ask me some of those questions, and let's see if I have any answers for you?"

Indigo turns her neck to look at the bed. Super hearing can pick up the motion of servos. Her body turns while the head remains in place, until they are properly aligned once more. She walks over and sits down on the bed. She pauses, then adopts the exact same posture and body language as Karen. "I. do. no. have. questions. You. are. important. to. Metropolis. I. am. Metropolis. You. are. important. to. me."

Karen smiles at that, unable to help herself. "Well, thank you. That's flattering. But curiosity implies that you have questions. I don't know that I'll have answers. But at the least, I can try." She watches the robotic avatar's movements at extreme detail, watching the interplay of all her smallest parts, listening as things change, adjust and adapt for her movements. Mmmm. Fascinating. "Metropolis is important to me, too. Its people. All of them." And maybe she'll have to add Indigo to that list. This could be fascinating. And the possibility that she has access to Brainiac's data, gathered from all over the galaxies, provides rich opportunities.

"Which Gift is that?" Karen inquires, curiously. She is studying the robot's attempts to mimic human behavior and mannerisms. She is well aware that Indigo is copying much of what she's doing from her. It's flattering, even though it is a bit of pressure, too. Is she properly representing the citizens of Metropolis to this, apparently an avtar of … what? Their City? She's still not sure.

"Ah. Magic people." Karen offers, nodding. "I've met one or two of those. But I don't … I don't have their gifts. I don't understand what it is they deal with." She is honest, because there is no reason not to be.

"I don't want to make any pacts with you, Indigo." Karen admits, smiling. "But I would be happy to talk with you. You say you're curious. About me. So, we should visit. Talk. Find ways for you to learn more about me, to satisfy that curiosity." It's a reasonable hypothesis, anyway.

"I do have one thing I would ask of you, though." Karen admits. "You obviously know /all/ of who I am. I expect you know that I go out of my way to keep that information secret." She waits for affirmation before continuing. "I ask you not to tell anyone - like Lex Luthor, for instance - who I am. Never tell anyone that Karen Starr is also Power Woman. Or that Power Woman is also Karen Starr." Here's were things will get tricky. "You know what Power Woman looks like, in costume. When I am in that costume, I need you to call me Power Woman. Or Kara Zor-L. Never Karen Starr. But when I am /not/ in that costume, I need you to only after call me Karen Starr. Is that something you can do? Something you can agree to, Indigo?"

Indigo's eyes shine for a moment and the three dots appear on her forhead again. "Power. Woman. in. costume." The holographic display of Karen's dorm computer flickers to life and a hundred images of Power Woman culled from a search engine image data mine flash by in rapid succession. "Karen. Starr. when. not. in. costume." More images, this time of Karen Starr, teenage genius.

Karen watches, and nods. The sight of Brainiac's sigil is not one she greets lightly, but she tries not to tense up too much; she doesn't want to unnecessarily upset Indigo. "Yes. Can you agree to that, Indigo? Please?" She hopes so.

"Thank you, Indigo." Karen's smile does have a little genuine pleasure to it, though, and she shares it openly. "I take it you want to learn more about your citizens? The people who live here in Metropolis?" Why else create an avatar like this? Why else try to /be/ like them?

Collect knowledge. Karen mostly - but only mostly - suppresses a shudder at that phrasing, as it evokes terrible memories of Braniac. Memories of some very unpleasant experiences. "OK." Karen considers the question. "Indigo, can you assimilate the holographic projectors and imaging subsystems from this computer?" She indicates the one on the desk.

"If so, then maybe you can do so. Then let's try to create a holographic model for yourself that will look more like the other citizens, enabling you to blend in." Karen offers, as she picks up her StarkPad and starts working on the calculations for creating a human seeming that will fit Indigo's dimensions and other appearance characteristics as closely as possible. Then she starts uploading that to the computer on her desk, so that Indigo can access it easily.

"Just as I dress like them, walk and talk like them, we'll work on enabling you to do so. Then you can go with me, out amongst them. Observe. And learn." Not necessarily always with Karen. But they'll start out together, until Indigo feels capable of going on her own. "I'll do what I can to help."

Indigo shakes her head. Precisely two inches to the left. Precisely two inches to the right. "I. do. no. agree." She says this firmly. "This. form. suits. me. I. will. not. accept. another." Even if it is holographic, it seems. "Metropolis. has. no. need. for. disguises."

"Not exactly true." Karen answers, smiling. "But if you don't want to use a disguise, I certainly wouldn't try to force you. I merely thought it would be the best way for you to observe and participate in human interactions and behaviors, to learn about them." She explains her reasonsing, in the hopes it will help ease any ruffled robotic 'feathers'.

"OK. You can access the online feeds. Obviously. So you have plenty of data available to observe human behavior. The challenge then is to help you learn to proces that data and evaluate it. To learn to understand the observed behaviors, and the elements going on behind their closed, non-digital systems that lead to those outward choices of action and word." Karen offers up.

"No. I don't speak to you as if you were a computer, Indigo. I don't speak to computers like this." Not even AIs like JARVIS. "But I am speaking to you as if you have the capabilities of a computer, which you do. And I'm trying to offer advice as to how you can try to sate some of the curiosity you have about the humans that are a part of your city. To come to understand why they do what they do, why they say what they say." Karen stands, smiling down at Indigo. "It's up to you what you do and how you do it, Indigo. But you came to me. You said you were curious about me. This is part of what I do: I look at someone facing a challenge, and I try to think about a way that I can, perhaps, help them achieve their goal. It can be as simple as holding their hand. Or listening to them. Or it can be as difficult as trying to help save their home, or their family, or their city, or even their world. Whenever I can, I look for longer-term solutions, things that promote real change. That head off that problem from arising again. But I do whatever I can to help." She stops. It's enough. So she finishes with simply, "Feel free to come back again. To ask questions. Or even if you only want to visit. The choice is yours. All I ask is that you keep my dual identity secret. And thank you, for that."

Not precisely true, but Karen isn't going to argue with Indigo right now. Truth is, she /did/ present a problem. She just doesn't like - how odd, to apply that word - Karen's solutions. That's fine. No one /has/ to take her solutions. That's never part of the arrangement. "And if you are Metropolis, than I have, and will continue, to keep you safe." she responds, easily enough.

Again, Indigo smiles. Again, the motion is mechanical and a simulation. Not at all the real thing. "Of. course. you. will. That. is. what. you. do. We. will. meet. again. KarenStarr." The three dots glow on Indigo's forehead and then she sinks into the floor, as if both she and it were two liquids merging into a single, comprehensive unit. And, like that?